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Friday, May 16, 2003

By Gerry Dulac, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

The University of Pittsburgh has called a news conference for this morning and will announce Oklahoma's Jeff Long as its next athletic director.

Long, a senior associate athletic director with the Sooners who has worked at eight Division I schools, declined to comment last night, saying, "That should come from someone at the university."

Long, a native of Kettering, Ohio, was one of at least four candidates who interviewed with the eight-person search committee Saturday on the Pitt campus.

Long and Orange Bowl chief executive officer Keith Tribble had emerged as finalists for the position, left vacant by the departure of Steve Pederson. But, after learning last night that Pitt had scheduled a news conference for 9:30 a.m. today, Tribble issued a statement through an Orange Bowl spokesman, withdrawing his name from consideration.

"After speaking with my family and discussing the opportunity, I have decided to withdraw from the University of Pittsburgh athletic director search," Tribble said. "At the time, I plan on continuing as chief executive officer of the Orange Bowl."

Earlier yesterday, Akron Athletic Director Mike Thomas also withdrew his name from consideration. Thomas was one of the first candidates to appear in front of the search committee, visiting the Pitt campus a week ago.

Michigan State associate athletic director Mark Hollis, a former Pitt associate athletic director; and Indiana chief operating officer and deputy director of athletics Craig Angelos also interviewed on campus Saturday. But they were not considered among the finalists for the position.

Long, though, apparently emerged from the pack because of his vast experience at Division I schools and strong marketing background. He was the athletic director for two years at Eastern Kentucky before going to Oklahoma in December 2000, heading up a marketing partnership with Daktronics that resulted in the first on-campus Division I-AA scoreboard at Roy Kidd Stadium at no cost to the university.

Before Eastern Kentucky, Long spent 11 years at the University of Michigan, serving as administrative liaison for the school's 11 football bowl appearances and heading sponsorship for the first on-campus Kickoff Classic in 1995.

Long also had administrative or coaching positions at Rice, Duke and North Carolina State and was a graduate assistant football coach at Miami of Ohio, his alma mater, where he earned a master's degree in education.

Pitt intensified its search to find an athletic director after Marc Boehm, who had been serving as interim athletic director, announced May 5 he was leaving at join Pederson as executive associate athletic director at Nebraska.

And they didn't want to waste more time because the Big East Conference meeting is scheduled to begin tomorrow in Jacksonville, Fla.